I-SEARCH

When I was first considering what to research, I thought about social issues that are not very popular. I wanted to write about something that many people don't know about. As I was browsing the web for something to research, I stumbled across something dealing with sex trafficking. I read more about it and what I found was alarming. Since most people don't know it exists in the United States, I wanted to write about it so others could read about it. As an elementary education major, I am interested in the health and well-being of children, so I wanted to write exclusively about juvenile sex trafficking--it narrowed down my topic too. I found a lot of sources published by the government, and some accounts of sex trafficked victims themselves. I found other sources from reliable newspapers and news networks. Some other sources were written by professors who lead sex trafficking awareness centers at their universities. After looking through all my sources, I concluded that sex trafficking in the United States is more of a problem than most people think it is, and something needs to be done about it. First, I tried to contact agencies that deal with sex trafficking victims, including Indiana's Children and Youth Services, but only one agency out of the 13 I contacted were willing to be interviewed by me. Since interviews were then out of the question, I decided I would get better results if I send a questionnaire to IUP students to see how much they know about sex trafficking. Finding participants is the only problem I have had so far, and I have to rewrite my methodology section to fit my new research method. I think I wrote a good literature review so I am proud of that.